Osho himself was not wealthy at all. In fact, he owned almost nothing. At most, he may have had a Buddha statue and a bottle of unscented shampoo—and that was it. Whatever he received, he gave away, including watches, Rolls-Royces, and statues of Buddha.
It was his followers who were wealthy—some of them extremely so. They were the ones who bought the Rolls-Royces and expensive watches for him to use. His apparent display of wealth was pure showmanship. He wanted to challenge the idea that one must be poor to be religious. He believed that as long as poverty was idealized as a virtue, it would never truly be eliminated. He also welcomed the massive publicity the cars generated, once saying that he wanted to make sure “everyone who is looking for me will not be able to say they had not heard of me.”
There were other messages behind it as well, such as parodying American materialism. He didn’t purchase these items himself; he simply accepted a few things because people insisted on giving them to him.
Osho was often called the “guru of the rich.” In one interview, he was asked why he didn’t use his so-called “enormous wealth” to help the poor. He replied: “People have been helping the poor for thousands of years—and they are still poor. But who is there to help the rich?”
